> **Important:** The only official, maintained packages for Spec Kit come from the [github/spec-kit](https://github.com/github/spec-kit) GitHub repository. Any packages with the same name available on PyPI (e.g. `specify-cli` on pypi.org) are **not** affiliated with this project and are not maintained by the Spec Kit maintainers. For normal installs, use the GitHub-based commands shown below. For offline or air-gapped environments, locally built wheels created from this repository are also valid.
The easiest way to get started is to initialize a new project. Pin a specific release tag for stability (check [Releases](https://github.com/github/spec-kit/releases) for the latest):
If your environment blocks access to PyPI (you see 403 errors when running `uv tool install` or `pip install`), you can create a portable wheel bundle on a connected machine and transfer it to the air-gapped target.
**Step 1: Build the wheel on a connected machine (same OS and Python version as the target)**
```bash
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/github/spec-kit.git
cd spec-kit
# Build the wheel
pip install build
python -m build --wheel --outdir dist/
# Download the wheel and all its runtime dependencies
pip download -d dist/ dist/specify_cli-*.whl
```
> **Important:** `pip download` resolves platform-specific wheels (e.g., PyYAML includes native extensions). You must run this step on a machine with the **same OS and Python version** as the air-gapped target. If you need to support multiple platforms, repeat this step on each target OS (Linux, macOS, Windows) and Python version.
**Step 2: Transfer the `dist/` directory to the air-gapped machine**
Copy the entire `dist/` directory (which contains the `specify-cli` wheel and all dependency wheels) to the target machine via USB, network share, or other approved transfer method.
**Step 4: Initialize a project (no network required)**
```bash
# Initialize a project — no GitHub access needed
specify init my-project --ai claude --offline
```
The `--offline` flag tells the CLI to use the templates, commands, and scripts bundled inside the wheel instead of downloading from GitHub.
> **Deprecation notice:** Starting with v0.6.0, `specify init` will use bundled assets by default and the `--offline` flag will be removed. The GitHub download path will be retired because bundled assets eliminate the need for network access, avoid proxy/firewall issues, and guarantee that templates always match the installed CLI version. No action will be needed — `specify init` will simply work without network access out of the box.
> **Note:** Python 3.11+ is required.
> **Windows note:** Offline scaffolding requires PowerShell 7+ (`pwsh`), not Windows PowerShell 5.x (`powershell.exe`). Install from https://aka.ms/powershell.
